1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to paintball loaders, and more particularly, to a paintball loader which forcibly and rapidly feeds paintballs into a paintball gun.
2. Description of Related Art
Operators of paintball guns are constantly seeking increased performance from paintball guns. Operators use these paintball guns in a war game having two teams of players trying to capture one another""s flag. The war game is played on a large field with opposing home bases at each end. Each team""s flag is located at the player""s home base. In addition, all of the players have a paintball gun that shoots paintballs. These paintballs are gelatin-covered spherical capsules filled with paint. During play of the game, the players on each team advance towards the opposing team""s base in hopes of stealing the opposing team""s flag, without being eliminated from the war game. A player is eliminated from the game when the player is hit by a paintball fired from an opposing player""s gun. When the paintball hits a player, xe2x80x9csplatxe2x80x9d of paint is left on the player.
Typically, an existing paintball loader includes a housing which is placed on an upper portion of a paintball gun. The housing is shaped to hold a large quantity of paintballs. At the bottom of the housing is an outlet tube through which the paintballs drop by the force of gravity. The outlet tube leads to an inlet tube located on the upper portion of the gun.
During the operation of existing paintball loaders, paintballs sequentially drop by gravity through the outlet tube into the inlet tube of the gun. The inlet tube directs each paintball into the firing chamber of the gun, where the paintball is propelled outwardly from the gun by compressed air.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/465,440 describes a paintball feed system providing enhanced performance over existing paintball feed systems by utilizing a drive cone to forcibly feed paintballs into the gun. However, jams may still occur when rapidly feeding paintballs to the gun. Additionally, an operator cannot control the speed at which the paintballs are fed to the gun. A motor which drives the drive cone, has only two speeds at which it operates, zero and full speed. The two speed operation of the motor inefficiently feeds paintballs to the paintball gun. Therefore, to increase the performance of a paintball gun, a paintball loader is needed which reliably and forcibly delivers paintballs to a paintball gun at a rapid, selectable rate, while actively preventing paintball jams.
Thus, it would be a distinct advantage to have an apparatus which feeds the paintballs at a selectable and rapid rate into the paintball gun, while simultaneously actively preventing jams from occurring during the operation of the paintball gun and loader. It is an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus.
In one aspect, the present invention is a rapid feed paintball loader for use on a paintball gun. The paintball loader includes a container for holding a plurality of paintballs, a paintball agitating device mounted on a bottom portion of the container, and an exit tube exiting from a side wall near the bottom portion of the container and leading to an inlet tube of the paintball gun. The paintball loader also includes a tube extension mounted on an interior surface of the container adjacent to the exit tube, a motor that rotates the paintball agitating device and a deflector for deflecting paintballs downward into the gaps between the fins or upward to pass over the tube extension. The deflector is pivotably attached to the interior surface of the container adjacent to the tube extension and is mounted at a height above the top feed surface of the agitating device and below a bottom portion of the tube extension. In addition, the paintball loader includes a means for actuating the motor upon demand.
In another aspect the present invention is a rapid feed paintball loader for use on a paintball gun. The paintball loader includes a plurality of fins located at a bottom portion of the container. Each fin has a top surface and with an adjacent fin forms a gap large enough to accommodate a paintball. The paintball loader also includes means for rotating the plurality of fins about an axis running perpendicularly through the bottom portion of the container.
In still another aspect, the present invention is a rapid feed paintball loader which includes a detector for detecting a presence of paintballs at a selected position within the exit tube and a microprocessor which variably controls the speed of the motor. The microprocessor decreases the speed of the motor when receiving a signal from the detector that the presence of paintballs is detected in the exit tube and increases the speed of the motor when receiving a signal from the detector that paintballs are not present in the exit tube.